Associating a user voice query with head direction

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for associating a query to a direction is provided herein. During operation, a virtual partner will attempt to determine a direction the query originated from. When answering the query, the virtual partner will adjust multiple speaker outputs so that the reply is perceived to come from the same direction as the query originated from. Additionally, if another follow-on query is made from a particular direction, the follow-on query will be associated with the prior query originating from the same particular direction.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is related to US Application No. (AttorneyDocket No. PAT21308), entitled ASSOCIATING A USER VOICE QUERY WITH HEADDIRECTION, filed on the same date as the present application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Tablets, laptops, phones (e.g., cellular or satellite), mobile(vehicular) or portable (personal) two-way radios, and othercommunication devices are now in common use by users, such as firstresponders (including firemen, police officers, and paramedics, amongothers), and provide such users and others with instant access toincreasingly valuable additional information and resources such asvehicle histories, arrest records, outstanding warrants, healthinformation, real-time traffic or other situational status information,and any other information that may aid the user in making a moreinformed determination of an action to take or how to resolve asituation, among other possibilities.

Many such communication devices further comprise, or provide access to,electronic digital assistants (or sometimes referenced as “virtualpartners”) that may provide the user thereof with valuable informationin an automated (e.g., without further user input) and/or semi-automated(e.g., with some further user input) fashion. The valuable informationprovided to the user may be based on explicit requests for suchinformation posed by the user via an input (e.g., such as a parsednatural language input or an electronic touch interface manipulationassociated with an explicit request) in which the electronic digitalassistant may reactively provide such requested valuable information, ormay be based on some other set of one or more context or triggers inwhich the electronic digital assistant may proactively provide suchvaluable information to the user absent any explicit request from theuser.

As some existing examples, electronic digital assistants such as Sidprovided by Apple, Inc.® and Google Now provided by Google, Inc.®, aresoftware applications running on underlying electronic hardware that arecapable of understanding natural language, and may complete electronictasks in response to user voice inputs, among other additional oralternative types of inputs. These electronic digital assistants mayperform such tasks as taking and storing voice dictation for futurereference and retrieval, reading a received text message or an e-mailmessage aloud, generating a text message or e-mail message reply,looking up requested phone numbers and initiating a phone call to arequested contact, generating calendar appointments and providingappointment reminders, instructing users how to proceed with an assignedtask, warning users of nearby dangers such as traffic accidents orenvironmental hazards, and providing many other types of information ina reactive or proactive manner.

Oftentimes a user may ask multiple queries to their digital assistant ina short period of time. The queries may be independent from each other(different questions) or may be related to a prior query. Afterreceiving a query, a virtual partner takes time to process the query,search through a potential massive public safety database, and constructnatural language to response to the user. If, before the virtual partnerresponds to a query, a user sends a subsequent second or third query,the user might get confused as to whether a response/answer is to thefirst, second or third query, since the answer to the second or thirdquery may come prior to the answer to the first query.

Furthermore, if the user wants to append to, or amend a particular query(e.g. ask a further follow-up question related to the particular query),there is no technique to accomplish that except for the user to at leastrepeating subject matter of the particular query. For example, if oneasks “Where is my car parked?”, and then asks, “What is the hightemperature going to be today?”, the person will get two responses fromtheir virtual partner. For example, the person may get an answer, “spot213”, and an answer “25 degrees”. The person then wants to ask a followup question “In Chicago?”. But what query does it attach to? Is theperson asking “is my car parked in Chicago?” or is the person asking “Isthe high temperature for Chicago?” Currently, digital assistants have noway of knowing what query the follow-up question applies to.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying figures where like reference numerals refer toidentical or functionally similar elements throughout the separateviews, and which together with the detailed description below areincorporated in and form part of the specification, serve to furtherillustrate various embodiments and to explain various principles andadvantages all in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates an operational environment for the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an operational environment for the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an operational environment for the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a speaker and microphone array in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a speaker and microphone array in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a speaker and microphone array in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a hub.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing operation of a virtual partner inaccordance with a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing operation of a virtual partner inaccordance with a second embodiment of the present invention.

Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures areillustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily beendrawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioningof some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative toother elements to help to improve understanding of various embodimentsof the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements thatare useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are oftennot depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of thesevarious embodiments of the present invention. It will further beappreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described ordepicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in theart will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence isnot actually required.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In order to address the above-mentioned need, a method and apparatus forassociating a query to a direction is provided herein. During operation,a virtual partner will determine a direction the query originated from.When answering the query, the virtual partner will adjust multiplespeaker outputs so that the reply is perceived to come from the samedirection as the query originated from. Additionally, if anotherfollow-on query is made from a particular direction, the follow-on querywill be associated with a prior query originating from the sameparticular direction.

Expanding on the above, assume multiple queries are made by anindividual. The first query is made when the user turns to the left. Inresponse, the virtual partner will answer the query as if the answeroriginated from the user's left. A second query is made from the user'sright. In response, the virtual partner will answer the query as if theanswer originated from the user's right. If the user again turns to theleft to query the virtual partner, the query may be associated with theprevious query made from the left. It should be noted that twodirections (left and right) are used in the above example but multipledirections or head angles (for example, front side of the user, 45degree angle from the right, 60 degree angle from the left) may be usedto handle multiple queries or multiple follow up queries.

Continuing with the above example, if a person asks “where is my carparked” while looking to their right, and then asks, “what is the hightemperature going to be today” while looking to their left, they willget two answers. The person may get an answer “spot 213” with virtualpartner's voice perceived from their right, and get a second answer “25degrees” with virtual partner's voice perceived from their left. Theperson then wants to ask a follow up question “In Chicago?”. But whatquery does it attach to? Is the person asking “Is my car parked inChicago” or “Is the high temperature for Chicago”? In order to addressthis issue, a follow up question is associated with a prior query basedon the direction the person's head is pointing, so that if the personlooks to their right and asks, “In Chicago?”, they will get a follow-upanswer to the original question asked from the right, “Yes, at theAddison Station in Chicago”, with virtual partner's voice perceived fromthe same right direction, however, if the person asks the same question“In Chicago?” while looking to their left, then the follow-up answercould be “Yes, 25 degrees for a high in Chicago”, with virtual partner'svoice perceived from the same left direction.

By conveying the response to the user in the same direction as the userperformed the query, the user will have an experience as if the virtualpartner is virtually located in the direction of the question and willdearly relate different virtual partner responses with the particularquery.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, each direction may beassociated with a differing persona (different voice and voicecharacteristics such as, but not limited to, gender, tone, cadence,timbre, phonation, resonance, . . . , etc.). So, for example, a femalemay answer from a person's right, and a male may answer from a person'sleft.

Turning now to the drawings, wherein like numerals designate likecomponents, FIG. 1 illustrates an operational environment for thepresent invention. Person 101 will have a device equipped with a virtualpartner. The virtual partner will obtain information on, for example,head direction when a question is asked. In FIG. 1, person 101 asks aquestion (query #1) when looking off to their right. In this particularexample, person 101 is looking 30 degrees to their right when thequestion was asked. When answering the question, the virtual partnerwill modify the output of multiple speakers so that the answer of thequestion will appear to be coming from the person's right side. Themodification of the speaker output may be something as simple as havinga speaker located on the person's right-hand side output the response(other speakers may remain silent). Alternatively, the phase andamplitude of multiple speakers may be modified so that the answerappears to originate from 30 degrees to their right. In this embodiment,the direction of the answer and query is determined relative to the userbody and thus will not be impacted by the user body movement. Forexample, even if the user rotates their body and/or walks to anotherlocation after perform the query, the answer to the query will stilloriginate from 30 degrees to the person's right. In other words, theangle used to determine the direction of a query, and the direction of aresponse is measured from the user's body as a reference point.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 2, the virtual partner may determine alocation of person 101 when the query was made, and then answer thequery as if the answer originated from the user's location when thequery was made. More particularly, the virtual partner will determine alocation where a person was when a query was made, then determine ananswer to the query. Because a period of time may pass between when thequestion was asked, and when the question was answered, the person mayhave moved to a new location. Prior to providing the answer to theperson, the virtual partner will determine a current location of theperson, and determine an orientation of the person. The virtual partnerwill then adjust speaker parameters so that the answer appears tooriginate from the location the person was at when they asked thequestion. The location can be determined by using technique for exampleGPS, dead reckoning method, motion sensor or other outdoor or indoorlocation tracking method to determine the absolute or relative locationbetween the location where a query was made and the location where theanswer need to be provided. The orientation of the user can bedetermined by, for example, a motion sensor (e.g. gyroscope,magnetometer).

As discussed above, follow-up questions may be asked to a query. Forexample, if a query is made to a virtual partner that does not haveenough information for the virtual partner to determine an answer, thevirtual partner may assume that the query is a follow-up query to aprior query. For example, if a virtual partner received a query, “InChicago?” from a user, the virtual partner may decide that the querydoes not contain enough information to formulate an answer. The virtualpartner may then associate the query with a prior question/answer. Forexample, if the prior query was, “What is the high temperature fortoday?”, and the virtual partner answered “25”, the virtual partner maydetermine the query “In Chicago?” to be a follow-up question about thelast answer given to the user.

As discussed above, when multiple queries are received, the virtualpartner may have trouble determining what question and answer afollow-up question is associated with. As shown in FIG. 3, if thevirtual partner determines that a query is a follow-up question, it willassociate the query with a prior query/prior answer that was providedthat originated from a same direction as the follow-up question. In thisparticular embodiment, the virtual partner may or may not modify speakeroutputs (to match the answers direction with queries direction) asdiscussed above.

As shown in FIG. 3, person 101 asked query #1 when looking to theirright, then asked query #2 when looking to their left. Person 101 thenasked query #3 while looking to their left. The virtual partnerdetermined that query #3 was a follow-up question because query #3 didnot contain enough information to formulate a response. The virtualpartner determined that query #3 is a follow-up question to query #2because query #3 was asked by the user while facing their left. Twoembodiments are shown in FIG. 3. In particular, one embodiment (on theleft) the direction of the answer does not match the direction of thereceived query. On the right side of FIG. 3, the virtual partner answeris generated by the speakers so that the virtual partner response(response to initial queries and follow up responses) are perceived fromthe same direction of the user's head (with respect to the user's body)when the query is made.

FIG. 4 shows a system that associates a user's query with a headdirection. In this particular embodiment, collar device 400 is used toboth determine a user's head direction, and output modified audio as ifthe output audio originated in a particular direction. It should benoted that device 400 is simply an embodiment of the present inventionthat determines query direction and provides an audible output that mayoriginate in the direction the user's head was pointed to when they madethe query. Device 400 can be replaced with other body wearable devices,for example a wearable harness radio or smart vest that has multiplemicrophones, speakers and sensors near the location of the user'sshoulders. In another example, device 400 can be replaced with otherhead mounted wearable devices, for example a smart glasses that havemultiple microphones, speakers, and sensors located along the temples(arms) of the smart glasses, or a smart helmet that having multiplemicrophones, speakers, and sensors located inside or outside the helmet.

Hub 403 comprises a police radio equipped with a virtual partner. It isenvisioned that the public-safety officer will have an array of devicesavailable to the officer at the beginning of a shift (including collardevice 400). The officer will select the devices, and form a personalarea network (PAN) with the devices that will accompany the officer onhis shift. Collar device 400 pulled by the officer will be configured tobe part of a PAN by associating (pairing) with hub 403 and communicatingwirelessly to/from hub 403. Hub 403 will be configured with a digitalassistant. In a preferred embodiment, the PAN comprises more than twodevices, so that many devices are connected via the PAN simultaneously,however, in an alternate embodiment of the present invention only hub403 and device 400 may be connected via a short-range wirelesscommunication link.

A method called bonding is typically used for recognizing specificdevices and thus enabling control over which devices are allowed toconnect to each other when forming the PAN. Once bonded, devices thencan establish a connection without user intervention. A bond is createdthrough a process called “pairing”. The pairing process is typicallytriggered by a specific request by the user to create a bond from a uservia a user interface on the device.

As shown, collar device 400 includes left-side audio speaker 402L,right-side audio speaker 402R, a left-side microphone array 401L, and aright-side microphone array 401R. In this embodiment, the microphonearrays are used as a sensor to determine head direction when a query isreceived. During operation left and right-side microphone arrays 401Land 401R will receive a query from the user. Microphone arrays 401L and401R will be used to determine a direction from which the query wasreceived by determining a volume level of the query received at eachmicrophone. The microphone with the largest volume level for thereceived query will be the direction the user was facing when the querywas made.

A head angle can be also be determined by using only two microphones(e.g., one on the user's right and one on the user's left). Thedirection that the user was facing when the query was made can bedetermined by comparing the relative loudness differences at eachmicrophone to calculate the user direction, for example, if the audiosignal received by the left microphone 401L is 50% louder than the rightmicrophone 401R, then the user facing direction is determined to be 45degree from the left. In another example, the user head facing directioncan be determined by other body-worn sensors that may be located on theuser's shoulders (for example, infrared proximity sensor, radar objectrecognition sensor, radar proximity sensor, capacitive proximitysensor), or sensors that are located on user's head (for example, motionsensor on smart glasses or smart helmet).

Hub 403 will be provided the query and the direction over theshort-range communication link (i.e., over the PAN), and hub 403 willformulate a response to the query. The response will be provided todevice 400 with volume (and potentially phase) information for eachspeaker 402L and 402R. The volume information for each speaker maysimply be binary (on/off), so that only the speaker 402R is activatedwhen the query originates from the right, and only 402L is activatedwhen the query originates from the left. Alternatively, the gain andphase of each speaker may be adjusted to provide a perception that theanswer is originating from any particular angle, for example, asdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,953,236B2, AUDIO USER INTERFACE (UI) FORPREVIEWING AND SELECTING AUDIO STREAMS USING 3D POSITIONAL AUDIOTECHNIQUES, or described by Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/) bysearching “3D Audio Effect”.

FIG. 5 shows an alternate embodiment for a system that associates aquery with a head direction. In this particular embodiment, ear buds 501are used to provide the output audio as described above. Although earbuds 501 are shown attached to hub 403 via a wired connection 503, theear buds may be connected wirelessly via the PAN.

FIG. 6 shows an alternate embodiment for a system that associates aquery with a head direction. In FIG. 6, the microphone array sensor hasbeen replaced by another sensor 601, for example imaging sensor orcamera, infrared proximity sensor, radar object recognition sensor,radar proximity sensor. In one example a camera is utilized as sensor601. Camera 601 is connected wirelessly to hub 403 via the PAN, and ispointed at the user's head. Camera 601 will be used to determine adirection the user's head is pointed when a query is received. Amicrophone array may still be used to hear the query, however camera 601will be used to determine where the user's head is pointed when thequery is received. More particularly, the camera will capture the userfacial features, perform video analytic or object recognitionprocessing, and match or correlate the facial features to apredetermined or pre-calibrated image library that contains images ofthe user/template face image with different facing angles. In anotherembodiments, the camera will detect the facial features of, for examplethe mouth, nose and eyes to determine the user facing direction. Forexample, in FIG. 6, if the camera detects one eye, the user is facingdirectly ahead, if two eyes are detected, the user is facing to theleft, and no eyes are detected the user is facing the right.

In another example, the angle of the user facing direction can bedetermined by detecting the nose nostril size and shape, for example,bigger and rounder nose nostril size indicates the user is rotatingtheir head towards the camera and the angle is determined by checkingdifferent varying size of the nose nostril. In the example embodiment ofusing proximity sensor (for example, infrared proximity sensor, radarproximity sensor), two proximity sensors are directed to sense theproximity of the user (one at each side of user's shoulders). In thisexample, when the user rotates to the left to perform the query, thedistance of the user's head to the proximity sensor is changed (chin isnow closer to the sensor) and thus the shorter distance detected willindicate the user is turning to towards the sensor.

In another example, radar object recognition can be used to recognizethe user facial feature and thus determine user facing direction. Inanother embodiment, the sensor 601 is a motion sensor (for example,accelerometer, gyrometer, magnetometer) that is located on the headmounted devices (for example, smart glasses, smart helmet). In thisexample, the motion sensor will move or rotate together with user headand thus able to detect the user facing direction.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a hub. As shown, hub 403 includes awide-area-network (WAN) transceiver 701 (e.g., a transceiver thatutilizes a public-safety communication-system protocol), PAN transceiver702 (e.g., a short-range transceiver), Graphical User Interface (GUI)706, database 710, logic circuitry 703, speaker/microphone array 708(which may comprise collar radio 400), optional sensors 713, andnatural-language processor (NLP) 712. In other implementations, hub 403may include more, fewer, or different components. For example, ifdigital-assistant functionality is being provided by cloud services(e.g. a dispatch center), then database 710 and NLP 712 may be absentfrom hub 403. Also, hub 403 may include an internal speaker (not shown).

WAN transceiver 701 may comprise well known long-range transceivers thatutilize any number of network system protocols. (As one of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize, a transceiver comprises both atransmitter and a receiver for transmitting and receiving data). Forexample, WAN transceiver 701 may be configured to utilize anext-generation cellular communications protocol operated by a cellularservice provider, or any public-safety protocol such as an APCO 25network or the FirstNet broadband network. WAN transceiver 701 may alsobe used to provide the necessary information to any cloud serviceproviding virtual-partner functionality.

PAN transceiver 702 may be well known short-range (e.g., 30 feet ofrange) transceivers that utilize any number of network system protocols.For example, PAN transceiver 702 may be configured to utilize Bluetoothcommunication system protocol for a body-area network, or a private802.11 network. PAN transceiver forms the PAN (acting as a masterdevice) with optional sensors 713 and speaker/microphone 708.

GUI 706 comprises provides a way of displaying information and receivingan input from a user. For example, GUI 706 may provide a way ofconveying (e.g., displaying) information to a user regarding that statusof device 403.

Speaker/microphone array 708 provides a mechanism for receiving humanvoice and providing it to the virtual partner (e.g., logic circuitry703/NLP 712), along with providing audible information generated by thevirtual partner (e.g., a voice). Speaker/microphone 708 may receivequeries from a user and provide the queries to logic circuitry 703,acting as a digital assistant.

Logic circuitry 703 comprises a digital signal processor (DSP), generalpurpose microprocessor, a programmable logic device, or applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC) and is configured along with NLP 712to provide digital assistant functionality. Logic circuitry 703 alsomaps a user's query to a direction, and associates the query with thedirection. Logic circuitry 703 also adjusts speaker array 708 to controlthe volume level of each speaker (and potentially the phase of eachspeaker) in order to adjust speaker array 708 to provide an output to aquery that is perceived by a user to originate from a direction that thequery was made from. Logic circuitry 703 also associates follow-upqueries to previous queries by determining a head direction in which thefollow-up query was made, and associating the follow-up query with aprior query made with the same head direction.

Database 110 is provided. Database 710 comprises standard memory (suchas RAM, ROM, . . . , etc) and serves to store queries and theirassociated head direction.

NLP 712 may be a well known circuitry to analyze, understand, and derivemeaning from human language in a smart and useful way. By utilizing NLP,automatic summarization, translation, named entity recognition,relationship extraction, sentiment analysis, speech recognition, andtopic segmentation can take place.

The digital assistant (i.e., logic circuitry 703/NLP 712) will determinea direction the query originated from. When answering the query, thevirtual partner will adjust multiple speaker outputs so that the replyis perceived to come from the same direction as the query originatedfrom. Additionally, if another follow-on query is made from a particulardirection, the follow-on query will be associated with the prior queryoriginating from the same particular direction. In one embodiment of thepresent invention, the “direction” is an angle the person's head makeswith their body, and in another embodiment of the present invention, the“direction” comprises a geographic location the user was at when thequery was made.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing operation of a virtual partner inaccordance with a first embodiment of the present invention. In thefirst embodiment of the present invention, an answer is given to theuser by a virtual partner that is perceived to come in the directionwhere the question originated from. The logic flow begins at step 801where at least one microphone receives a query from a person. At step803 a sensor determines a head direction of the person when the querywas received. As discussed above, the sensor may be taken from the groupconsisting of a microphone array, a camera, an infrared proximitysensor, a radar object recognition sensor, a radar proximity sensor, acapacitive proximity sensor, a motion sensor on smart glasses, and asmart helmet. Finally, at step 805, logic circuitry adjusts an output ofmultiple speakers to project the answer to the query in a direction thatis based on the head direction of the person.

As discussed above, the step of adjusting the output of the multiplespeakers may comprise the step of adjusting the output of the multiplespeakers to project the answer to the query in the head direction of theperson when the query was received. Additionally, the step ofdetermining the head direction may comprise the step of determining thehead direction with respect to the person's body.

As discussed, the step of adjusting the output of the multiple speakersmay comprise the step of adjusting a volume level of the multiplespeakers, wherein at least two speakers from the multiple speakers havediffering volume levels.

Additionally, as discussed, logic circuitry may determining a personabased on the head direction, and the step of adjusting the output ofmultiple speakers to project the answer to the query in a direction thatis based on the head direction of the person includes the step ofadjusting the output of the multiple speakers to answer the query in thepersona based on the head direction. More particularly, multiplepersonas may be stored in database 710, and logic circuitry 703 may mapa head direction to a persona, so for example, all questions having ananswer perceived from the left of the user will occur in a female voice,while those having an answer perceived from the right of the user willoccur in a male voice.

As discussed above, a second query may be received from the person and asecond head direction of the person when the second query was receivedmay be determined. The output of multiple speakers will then be adjustedto project the answer to the second query in a second direction that isbased on the second head direction of the person. The first and thesecond head directions may differ.

A third query from a person may be received and a head direction of theperson when the third query was received may be determined. It may bedetermined that the third query is a follow-up question (when not enoughinformation is received from the third query to fully answer aquestion). Logic circuitry may associate the third query to either thefirst or the second query based on the head direction of the person whenthe third query was received.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing operation of a virtual partner inaccordance with a second embodiment of the present invention. In thisembodiment, a follow-up question is associated with a prior query basedon the head direction associated with the prior query matching the headdirection of the follow-up question. The logic flow begins at step 901where a microphone receives a first query. At step 903 a sensordetermines a first head direction of a person when the first query wasreceived. A second query is then received by the microphone (step 905)and a second head direction of the person when the second query wasreceived is determined by logic circuitry (step 907). A third query isthen received by the microphone (step 909) and a third head direction ofthe person when the third query was received is determined by logiccircuitry (step 911).

At step 913 logic circuitry 703 determines that the third query is afollow-up query to either the first or the second query and associatesthe third query with either the first or the second query based on thethird head direction (step 915). Finally, logic circuitry 703 providesan answer to the third query to be output via at least one microphone(step 917).

As described above, the step of determining the first, second, and thirdhead directions comprises the step of determining the head directionswith respect to the person's body.

Additionally, as described above, an output of multiple speakers may beadjusted to project the answer to the third query in a direction that isbased on the third head direction of the person. The step of adjustingthe output of the multiple speakers may comprise the step of adjusting avolume level of the multiple speakers, wherein at least two speakersfrom the multiple speakers have differing volume levels.

Additionally, logic circuitry 703 may determine a persona based on thethird head direction and the step of answering the query may comprisethe step of answering the query in the persona based on the third headdirection.

In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments have beendescribed. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates thatvarious modifications and changes can be made without departing from thescope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly,the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrativerather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intendedto be included within the scope of present teachings.

Those skilled in the art will further recognize that references tospecific implementation embodiments such as “circuitry” may equally beaccomplished via either on general purpose computing apparatus (e.g.,CPU) or specialized processing apparatus (e.g., DSP) executing softwareinstructions stored in non-transitory computer-readable memory. It willalso be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have theordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressionsby persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above exceptwhere different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.

The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) thatmay cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is definedsolely by the appended claims including any amendments made during thependency of this application and all equivalents of those claims asissued.

Moreover in this document, relational terms such as first and second,top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish oneentity or action from another entity or action without necessarilyrequiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between suchentities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”,“having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any othervariation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, suchthat a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has,includes, contains a list of elements does not include only thoseelements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherentto such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by“comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . .a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence ofadditional identical elements in the process, method, article, orapparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms“a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly statedotherwise herein. The terms “substantially”, “essentially”,“approximately”, “about” or any other version thereof, are defined asbeing close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and inone non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, inanother embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1% and inanother embodiment within 0.5%. The term “coupled” as used herein isdefined as connected, although not necessarily directly and notnecessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” ina certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also beconfigured in ways that are not listed.

It will be appreciated that some embodiments may be comprised of one ormore generic or specialized processors (or “processing devices”) such asmicroprocessors, digital signal processors, customized processors andfield programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and unique stored programinstructions (including both software and firmware) that control the oneor more processors to implement, in conjunction with certainnon-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of themethod and/or apparatus described herein. Alternatively, some or allfunctions could be implemented by a state machine that has no storedprogram instructions, or in one or more application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certainof the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, acombination of the two approaches could be used.

Moreover, an embodiment can be implemented as a computer-readablestorage medium having computer readable code stored thereon forprogramming a computer (e.g., comprising a processor) to perform amethod as described and claimed herein. Examples of suchcomputer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, ahard disk, a CD-ROM, an optical storage device, a magnetic storagedevice, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a PROM (Programmable Read OnlyMemory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM(Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and a Flashmemory. Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill,notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choicesmotivated by, for example, available time, current technology, andeconomic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principlesdisclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such softwareinstructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader toquickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It issubmitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpretor limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in theforegoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features aregrouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamliningthe disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than allfeatures of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims arehereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claimstanding on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for answering a query, the apparatuscomprising: a microphone receiving a first query from a person and asecond query from the person; a sensor determining a first headdirection of the person with respect to the person's body when the firstquery was received and determining a second head direction of the personwith respect to the person's body when the second query was received;and logic circuitry adjusting an output of multiple speakers to projecta first answer to the first query and a second answer to the secondquery such that the first answer appears to originate from a point inspace along the first head direction and the second answer appears tooriginate from a point in space along the second head direction.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1 wherein the sensor is taken from the groupconsisting of a microphone array, a camera, an infrared proximitysensor, a radar object recognition sensor, a radar proximity sensor, acapacitive proximity sensor, a motion sensor on smart glasses, and asmart helmet.
 3. (canceled)
 4. (canceled)
 5. The apparatus of claim 1wherein the logic circuitry adjusts the output of the multiple speakersby adjusting a volume level of the multiple speakers, wherein at leasttwo speakers from the multiple speakers have differing volume levels. 6.The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the logic circuitry determines apersona based on the first head direction adjusts the output of multiplespeakers to answer the first query in the persona based on the firsthead direction.
 7. (canceled)
 8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein thefirst and the second head directions differ.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8wherein: the microphone receives a third query from the person; thesensor determines a head direction of the person when the third querywas received; the logic circuitry determines that the third query is afollow-up question and associates the third query to either the first orthe second query based on the head direction of the person when thethird query was received.
 10. A method for answering a query, the methodcomprising the steps of: receiving at least one microphone, a firstspoken query from a person; determining a first head direction of theperson with respect to the person's body when the first query wasreceived; adjusting an output of multiple speakers to project a firstanswer to the first query such that the first answer appears tooriginate from a point in space along the first head direction;receiving at the at least one microphone, a second spoken query from theperson; determining a second head direction of the person with respectto the person's body when the second query was received; and adjustingan output of the multiple speakers to project an answer to the secondquery such that the second answer appears to originate from a point inspace along the second head direction.
 11. (canceled)
 12. (canceled) 13.The method of claim 10 wherein the step of adjusting the output of themultiple speakers comprises the step of adjusting a volume level of themultiple speakers, wherein at least two speakers from the multiplespeakers have differing volume levels.
 14. The method of claim 10further comprising the step of: determining a persona based on the firsthead direction; and wherein the step of adjusting the output of multiplespeakers to project the first answer to the query in a direction that isbased on the first head direction of the person includes the step ofadjusting the output of the multiple speakers to answer the first queryin the persona based on the first head direction.
 15. (canceled)
 16. Themethod of claim 14 wherein the first and the second head directionsdiffer.
 17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the steps of:receiving a third query from the person; determining a head direction ofthe person when the third query was received; determining that the thirdquery is a follow-up question; associating the third query to either thefirst or the second query based on the head direction of the person whenthe third query was received.